No Man is an Island
by Sarcasticles
Summary: In which Shanks is ridiculous and Luffy learns a very important lesson from a jar of pickles


It was a normal day at Makino's bar. Shanks was enjoying some rum while young Monkey D Luffy nursed a glass of milk, and anyone who happened to look at them would be amazed at how a seven year kid was at the same maturity level as an infamous pirate from the Grand Line. Garp would have killed Shanks had he known how his grandson was being drawn to the Dark Side, but he was thousands of miles away, and not even the threat of the Fist of Love was enough to detour Luffy from spending time with his idol.

Shanks—being who he was—loved every minute of it. The kid was so damn gullible, he had started taking bets with his crew on how many blatant lies they could get him to believe. Yasopp was the current was winner after telling a whopper about an island made entirely of meat. Not one to be outdone, Shanks took great joy regaling tales of his prowess in battle. With each story Luffy's eyes grew a little wider and his jaw dropped a little farther in a way that was only really possible if you were made out of rubber, and Shanks began to discretely flick peas into the boy's mouth for target practice.

Really, Garp should be thanking him. No one else had discovered a way to make the kid eat his damn vegetables.

Every once in a while Luffy's gaze would drift to the empty space that until recently was occupied by his right arm. Shanks noticed every time, and every time would redouble his efforts. It wasn't as if Luffy felt guilty or anything (because when was Luffy remorseful about anything?), and it wasn't like Shanks was trying to relieve the boy's unsaid fears (because Shanks was a big, tough pirate with no time for such sentiments), or even that they were trying to avoid the topic (because they were men, dammit, and men faced things head on!). No, Shanks was merely trying to win a bet. Nothing more, nothing less.

"And then I wrestled the bear to the ground with one arm tied behind my back!" Shanks said, reenacting the scene for good measure, with Luffy playing the part of the bear in question. "He bit! He clawed! He tried to eat my face off! But I pinned him down for ten seconds, and I was declared the winner and allowed to set my crew free from the human-traps set all around the island by the Ursa Clan Warriors!"

"Is that how you hurt your face?" Luffy asked, squirming against Shanks's chokehold.

"Nah, this old hide was too tough for his claws to pierce. I got my scars against a much stronger foe." Which, perhaps, was the first true thing Shanks had said all afternoon, but he wasn't going to let Luffy know it. "Now Beckmen…I'm pretty sure he got his scar in a scrape with one of their cubs."

"Wow! I guess that means they were pretty strong."

"Yep, but I was stronger than them all. I've sailed the world, Luffy, I've defeated sea kings and pirates and marines. Heck, I've even fought your grandpa once or twice and lived to tell the tale."

Luffy's jaw literally hit the floor, and Shanks couldn't help but continue, "It's the captain's job to protect the crew, which means I've got to be the strongest of them all. Why, there was the time we got into a Davy Back Fight against a fishman who was twenty meters tall. My sword as effective as a splinter, and I had too—"

"Excuse me," Makino interrupted politely from the other side of the bar. "Could you help me for a moment, Shanks?"

"Of course. What do you need?"

"It's kind of embarrassing, really. But my hands are greasy, and I can't get this open."

She set down a jar of pickles on the bar, right next to Shanks's rum. He stared at it for a moment, then at her, then back at the jar, then back at her again. Makino's smile was perfectly angelic, and it told him that if he didn't stop filling the ever-impressionable Luffy's head with lies then he wouldn't need to worry about Garp, because _she_ would be the one who made him regret ever being born.

Shanks knew better than to piss off his bartender, and he smiled sheepishly while handing over the jar to Benn, who popped the seal without saying a word.

"But of course," Shanks said to Luffy, "a _true_ captain knows he can't do everything by himself."

Having dispensed this wisdom, he went back to his rum and Luffy to his milk, a quiet understanding between them. The loss of an arm wouldn't stop him from taking the Grand Line by storm, but if anything came up that he couldn't handle, his friends would always be by his side ready to lend a helping hand.

* * *

 **AN:** Written on a whim because while reading some (entirely justified) Shanks hype, I couldn't help but think, "Yes, but can he open a jar of pickles?"


End file.
